(if this goes in, it would go before "there"):

We are grateful for where our food came from

This thought before a meal is non-denominational: no matter who you are or where your food came from, the thing that you are eating has a relationship beyond yours to it, and the food’s to your microbiome… it is a fact both hard-science and philosophical that every action of yours happens within a system.

As you inhale, imagine the place that surrounded what it used to be before it was processed and brought to you. A cornfield in Fargo? The garden behind the restaurant? The crack in the sidewalk?

As you take a bite, pay attention to the insects, animals, and other things that might have been harmed or displaced so that you may eat comfortably, and the labor someone else put into preparing the food.

As you digest, remember that you are only as healthy as the macrobiome is, and that you play a role in making the best of it.

The following goes under the Medicine tab, underneath Cancer:

OTHER HEALTH BENEFITS

Have you ever eaten a dandelion? The roots, leaves, and petals are tastier than you might think, and can be used to make a variety of dishes with various health benefits. They are full of minerals and vitamins (embed a link to nutrition page here), and the root in particular has a variety of medicinal uses that have been documented in ancient medical records & herblore, and which are currently being investigated and validated by modern science. Dandelions combat vitamin deficiency, provide you with antioxidants, support your immune system, are a diuretic, and promote liver functioning and digestion.

They’re especially great for your gut! We've all got our very own microbiomes on or inside parts of our bodies, such as our skin or gastrointestinal tracts. Dandelions are good for human being's microbiomes because their roots contain inulin, a carbohydrate and soluble fiber. Inulin helps your microbiome because it can be a prebiotic, which means it can promote the development and activity of microorganisms that are beneficial to your health; it supports the growth of good gut bacteria and helps your digestive system .

There are all sorts of reasons to try dandelion as a tincture, tonic, extract, snack, or tea. Please have a conversation with your doctor in the event that you decide to start taking this plant as a treatment or supplement.

University of Maryland Medical Center (2015, June 06) Dandelion. http://umm.edu/health/medical/altmed/herb/dandelion

United States Department of Agriculture. (2016, May). Dandelion Greens. https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/2960?fgcd=

Sanchez, A. (n.d) Ten Things You Might Not Know About Dandelions. Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association. http://www.mofga.org/Default.aspx?tabid=756 Wambold, K., Ablir, D. (2013) Dandelion. http://www.herbs-info.com/dandelion.html#ref

Lixandru, M. (2014, December 12) Properties and Benefits of Dandelions. http://www.natureword.com/tag/priests-crown/

Hourdajian, D. (2006) Introduced Species Summary Project: Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale). http://www.columbia.edu/itc/cerc/danoff-burg/invasion_bio/inv_spp_summ/Taraxum_officinale.htm

Arshad Kassim, M., Baijnath, H., Odhav, B. (2014, August 04) Effect of traditional leafy vegetables on the growth of lactobacilli and bifidobacteria. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25088723

Susan G Komen (n.d) Dandelion. http://ww5.komen.org/BreastCancer/Dandelion.html

Wilderness Awareness School (n.d) Edible Weeds: Herbal Medicine Chest in Your Back Yard. https://www.wildernessawareness.org/articles/edible-weeds-herbal-medicine-chest-your-back-yard

Native American Ethonobotany Database (n.d) http://naeb.brit.org/uses/search/?string=dandelion

Group, E. (2015) The Top 9 Herbs for Liver Cleansing. http://www.globalhealingcenter.com/natural-health/top-9-herbs-for-liver-cleansing/

Organic Information Services Pvt Ltd. (2011) Health Benefits of Dandelions. https://www.organicfacts.net/health-benefits/herbs-and-spices/health-benefits-of-dandelion.html

1471: Gut Fauna. (2015, October 6). http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1471:_Gut_Fauna

Inulin. (2016, June 4). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inulin

Prebiotic. (2016, May 27) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prebiotic_%28nutrition%29

(These are a couple more sources to put under the agriculture heading for people to look into:)

Weisman, W., Halsey, D., Ruddock, B. (2014, August) Integrated Forest Gardening: the Complete Guide to Polycultures and Plant Guilds in Permaculture Systems.

Hemenway, T. (2001) Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture.

also, grammar mistake: dandelion shouldn't have an S on the end of it

This passage actually goes under the agriculture heading

For something that’s overlooked and dismissed, Dandelion is an interesting plant. They’re a hardy, edible, medicinal tap-rooted indicator species that’s adept at growing almost anywhere, especially in disturbed soil. What we think of as its single flower, the dandelion head, is actually comprised of hundreds of flowers (called florets). The puffball incarnation of them is iconically fun, but also indubitably reviled by gardeners and farmers because it represents the impending arrival of hundreds of seeds of this difficult-to-weed species. The inclination to protect land-space and soil-nutrients in favor of their crops or flowers often results in extensive use of pesticides, which are usually detrimental to the macrobiome (a term which refers specifically to the larger organisms of an environment's biological community, such as mammals, or to the ecological community overall).

It’s ironic that people are so bent on getting rid of dandelions, because they can in fact be good for both the macro and the microbiome (microorganisms, such as bacteria, of an environment's biological community). Dandelions are an indicator species, which means that their presence or absence reflects the conditions of the surrounding environment. For example, their ability to concentrate trace metals is useful for monitoring air and soil pollution. They’re also beneficial (and arguably necessary) to pollinators like bees, which are an integral part of the ecosystem.

The term soil microbiome encompasses all microorganisms in a soil environment, such as plant pathogens and bacteria beneficial to plant growth. Just one teaspoon of soil can be home to 100 million to 1 billion bacteria! Dandelions’ wide root network breaks up dense, hard-packed soil and their tap-roots move nutrients like calcium and nitrogen upwards from deeper soil to soil layers where other plants are able to access the nutrients as well. Both of these traits of dandelions mean they can improve overall soil fertility and help promote the growth of microorganisms.

Caryopsis, J. (n.d.). The Biology of Dandelions. http://www.naturenorth.com/summer/dandelion/Dandelion2.html

Macro. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged. http://www.dictionary.com/browse/macro

Biome. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged. http://www.dictionary.com/browse/biome

Microbiome. (n.d.) American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. (2011). http://www.thefreedictionary.com/microbiome

Coombs, A. (2013, January 1). The Soil Microbiome. Retrieved June 10, 2016 from http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/34209/title/The-Soil-Microbiome/

Ingham, E. R. (n.d). Soil Bacteria. Retrieved June 10, 2016 from USDA website http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detailfull/soils/health/biology/?cid=nrcs142p2_053862

Sanchez, A. (n.d) Ten Things You Might Not Know About Dandelions. Retrieved June 10, 2016 from Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association website http://www.mofga.org/Default.aspx?tabid=756

Kabata-Pendias, A., & Dudka, S. (1991). Trace metal contents of Taraxacum officinale (dandelion) as a convenient environmental indicator. http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF01734301

Czarnowska, K., & Milewska, A. (2000). The Content of Heavy Metals in an Indicator Plant (Taraxacum Officinale) in Warsaw. http://www.6csnfn.pjoes.com/pdf/9.2/125-128.pdf

Smith, C. (n.d.). What does an Indicator Species Do. https://www.wildernessawareness.org/articles/indicator-species

Taproot. (2016, June 08). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taproot

Before Note, I'd put:

Here are some resources for learning how to do urban foraging, navigating food systems, and thinking about your relationship with the local ecosystem:

And then here are more resources to add:

Eat Your Sidewalk http://www.spurse.org/what-weve-done/eat-your-sidewalk/

Michael Pollan, The botany of desire: A plant's eye view of the world. (2001) New York: Random House.

Michael Pollan, The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. (2006) New York: Penguin Press.

Michael Pollan, In defense of food: An eater's manifesto. (2008) New York: Penguin Press.

Will Allen & Charles Wilson, The good food revolution: Growing healthy food, people, and communities. (2012) New York, NY: Gotham Books.

MEDICINE

CANCER

Studies have shown that dandelion root is effective at treating cancer. Stay with us on this- we know it sounds impossible.

The properties of the root have, in several studies on different types of cancer, proven effective in inducing apoptosis (cell suicide) in cancerous cells while causing no damage to healthy cells. Up til now the research has been done on lab mice, but last year in Canada the University of Windsor began human clinical trials of dandelion tea as a cancer treatment. If reliably effective, this is gentler than chemotherapy and surgery, and could be an especially necessary option to explore for patients who are already too frail to undergo physically taxing cancer treatments.

To a certain extent, the world around you might already be providing the medicine you need. It’s easy in our hyper-pharmacological culture to dismiss plant-medicine as pseudoscience, but for many ailments you’re already using plants that have been transformed into pills- for example, Aspirin is derived from willow tree bark (thanks Hippocrates!), and Taxol, a highly successful cancer treatment, is derived from yew tree bark.

We would not advocate that a patient currently fighting cancer up and drop their treatment to start chewing on dandelion roots, but thinking toward the future and of the changes needed in our medical system, it becomes necessary to ask: why we are not making the best of an apparently potent medicine that’s lurking on our boulevards?

The Dandelion Root Project. (n.d.). Retrieved June 08, 2016, from http://www.uwindsor.ca/dandelionrootproject/

Pandey, S. (2015, February 19). Human clinical trials on for cancer killing dandelion extract. Retrieved June 08, 2016, from http://www.uwindsor.ca/dailynews/2015-02-18/human-clinical-trials-cancer-killing-dandelion-extract

Sigstedt, S., Hooten, C., Callewaert, M., Jenkins, A., Romero, A., Pullin, M., . . . Steelant, W. (2008, May 01). Evaluation of aqueous extracts of Taraxacum officinale on growth and invasion of breast and prostate cancer cells. Retrieved June 08, 2016, from https://www.spandidos-publications.com/ijo/32/5/1085

Chatterjee, S. J., Ovadje, P., Mousa, M., Hamm, C., & Pandey, S. (2011). The Efficacy of Dandelion Root Extract in Inducing Apoptosis in Drug-Resistant Human Melanoma Cells. Retrieved June 08, 2016, from http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2011/129045/

Ovadje, P., Hamm, C., & Pandey, S. (2012, February 17). Efficient Induction of Extrinsic Cell Death by Dandelion Root Extract in Human Chronic Myelomonocytic Leukemia (CMML) Cells. Retrieved June 08, 2016, from http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0030604#s3

Clinical Trials to Begin: Dandelion root far more effective in fighting cancer cells than chemotherapy. (2016). Retrieved June 08, 2016, from http://complete-health-and-happiness.com/clinical-trials-to-begin-dandelion-root-far-more-effective-in-fighting-cancer-cells-than-chemotherapy/?t=MAM

Aspirin. (2016, June 02). Retrieved June 08, 2016, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspirin

Success Story: Taxol (NSC 125973). (n.d.). Retrieved June 08, 2016, from https://dtp.cancer.gov/timeline/flash/success_stories/S2_taxol.htm

cut "local"- it could be left with no replacement, or could be replaced with "regional"

This might need even more fleshing out, but what I'd add on after the bulleted list is:

There are many opportunities to find joy in adapting to climate change.

On a local level: harvesting food makes you more in tune with the seasons. Greater connection to your local environment results in decreased monetary expenditure and increased health.

On a larger scale: We live in an era that necessitates coming together, reworking our relationships with each other and with the land, making time to be thoughtful about how we use the resources nearest to us, and coming up with inventive ways to make sure there are enough resources for all.

The Anthropocene inspires trepidation- but it also inspires ingenuity. We live in interesting times!

We've got to remember to get the instructions on here, or to delete "(needs instructions)"

[Add ahead of "We...]

Part of making the best of climate change is thinking about how to make the best-tasting foods we can with the ingredients available to us in the changing environment. Let's have a conversation about sustainable food systems and how to have a relationship with our regional biomes; what does your community offer up to eat?

[note: I've italicized changes so you can see what they are:]

High in Vitamin A: antioxidant, protects against infection and cancer

High in Vitamin C: iron absorption, aids red blood cell production, antioxidant

High in Vitamin K: calcium absorption, bone health

Liver cleanser, detox, diuretic (increasing the amount of urine your body makes)

Promotes healthy digestion

We used "interested" too many times. Change to "to learn more about how to do urban foraging, visit [...]"

I'd delete the "in its native environments" because it doesn't read easily and we already talked about where its native to. Also, here I would change it to "Its usage is documented in the Chinese medical record, and its medicinal properties were also known to the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans."

if you adopt my edit to the paragraph above this one, delete "the dandelion is highly adaptable" from this paragraph here

I think it would make more sense if it said:

Our collaborative group of artists, cooks, ponderers, and doers gathered around the dandelion as a conversation tool to talk about our changing climate. We are considering this problem of coping with “the new abnormal” from a position of opportunity, and thus we decided to highlight this highly adaptable weed- a humble, ignored, hated, adored, and totally interesting plant- to guide some explorations of our land-based relationship with climate.

To make it more readable, I suggest changing the start of the second paragraph to this (the change is italicized):

The extent of change that humans have wrought on the biosphere is so extreme on a geological scale that scientists are debating whether or not to categorize this as a new geological era- The Anthropocene (named for the humans who caused it, its start date is arguable- farming? steam engines? industrial cities? nuclear bombs?). So far the Anthopocene is full of hidden surprises and all sorts of changes, occurring in a much faster and uneven tempo than our cultural experience has prepared [...]